Humans can survive for several weeks without food, but you can only survive for a few days without water.

71% Earth’s surface is Water

Fish provide 1/5 of the animal protein eaten worldwide.

Lakes, Rivers, Seas and Oceans provide us with 50% of the oxygen we breathe, and our waters absorb 50% of our carbon footprint. (A carbon footprint is the measure of the impact our daily activities have on the environment, and in particular climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation etc.)

Good News:

Coral reefs are being studied to provide important pharmaceutical breakthroughs in areas such as antibiotics and cures for cancer, heart disease and asthma.

The Bad News:

Higher acidity level of the oceans and seas are a direct result of increased carbon levels. This is causing shells not to form properly resulting in a loss of shellfish.

Islands of plastic debris as large as the State of Texas are floating in the Pacific Ocean, called the North Pacific Gyre. As the plastic is ground down by the force of the oceans, the plastic particles are consumed by fish, and ultimately by us.

Coral Reefs are dying off at increased rates – almost 50% are already gone. Bleaching of coral reefs in the past 20 years is now attributed to higher water temperatures, UV radiation, and water pollutants including sunscreens. The use of chemical sunscreens is having a toxic effect on the aquatic ecosystem and is being banned in certain marine eco parks across the world

Do you know that sea turtles, which have been swimming our waters for millions of years are in fear of becoming extinct? Unsafe scallop dredging practices and bottom trawlers catch and kill baby sea turtles.

Sharks populations are dwindling and dying due to human intervention, not even eco environment factors. Sharks play a vital role in maintaining a healthy marine eco system and are strong indicators as to the ocean’s sustainablility. Shark finning and bycatch are endangering shark populations to the verge of upsetting the aquatic eco system balance.

Water Cycle

Our oceans contain almost 97% of the world’s water supply and play an important role in our water cycle, eventually giving us clean non-salinated drinking water. The water cycle involves the movement of water across different locations, through the processes of evaporation, condensation, freezing, and melting.

It begins with our rivers which flow into our oceans. Water in the ocean then evaporates into the atmosphere. The water in the atmosphere condenses in the clouds. This condensation falls back to earth in the form of rain or snow, which replenishes the water supply in rivers, lakes and groundwater. Our drinking water may come from rivers and lakes, but the majority comes from groundwater. All of these are connected to the ocean through the evaporation and condensation process. If this process is hindered in any fashion, so is our supply of drinking water.